OPay has received an approval from the Federal High Court in Lagos State to freeze customer accounts across thirty banks.
This move is part of an effort to recover ₦714 million mistakenly credited to customers due to a system glitch.
The glitch occurred between December 10, 2023, and March 4, 2024, allowing customers to receive the value of unsuccessful transactions.
OPay stated that they reached out to customers who received over ₦500,000 via emails and phone calls, requesting them to fund their accounts so the money could be debited.
While some customers responded positively and cooperated in the recovery of the credited funds, others have refused, failed, and neglected to fund their accounts to enable us to recover the funds.
OPay explained in their court filing
Despite these efforts, OPay could only recover 10% of the total amount. Then on June 28, 2024, the court granted OPay’s request to freeze these accounts, allowing the fintech to begin instructing banks to restrict access to the accounts in question.
How did the Opay Glitch occur?
The glitch was traced back to Interswitch, the company handling card transactions between OPay and its cardholders. Financial institutions use the bank response codes to categorize transactions as successful, pending, or failed.
Interswitch mistakenly settled all ‘RC 09‘ transactions as successful, which indicated a pending transaction where no debit was made to the customer’s account. As a result, many cardholders from December 10th received credits for transactions that should have been pending.
What This Means for OPay Customers
If you’re an OPay customer, it’s important to check your account status and ensure this freeze hasn’t impacted you. If you have received any funds erroneously and have spent it, it’s best to contact OPay immediately to discuss repayment options.
